, 1887-02-25
Refuses to Pass the Dependent
Pension Bill
Over the Veto by a Vote Of IT'S
Ayes to 125 Nays.
Mr.. Bragg Speaks in Defense of
the Presidents Action.

yeas to l25 nays. This was not the con
stitutional two-thirds in the affirmative.
The result was received with applause
from the Democratic side and with Kisses
on the Republican side.
Mr.. Bayne, of Pennsylvania, favored
the passage Of the bill over the veto. The
bill, he said, was being opposed by the
most corrupt and most hypocritical meth
DDS that had ever been employed to defeat
or promote legislation.
Mr.. Bragg, of Wisconsin, said that the
time had arrived when the pension ques-
ton should receive more than casual con-
sideration. 1t was time for members of
the house to got out from the roseate
bubble in which they lived in Washing
ton, prepared for them by claim agents,
and look after the interests Of the real
soldier and the business interests of the
country. They had drifted along, i'm
PEELED by a species of sympathetic infu-
ence, regardless of reason or Judgment,
until a period was reached which culmin-
ated in the presentation and passage OF
nj of the most scandalous bills which had
ever been sent to a president for his sig
nature.
The people of the country without re-
gard to party had every reason to be
thankful that this bill had been presented
to an executive who had backbone enough
to meet the situation. In a few years the
soldiers of the country mot the bummers)
would have arrived at an & when they
could come to congress and demand as a
right-not ask as a charity-that provis-
ion be made for them. Let not congress
bankrupt the treasury before that time
arrived by yielding to the demands of
deserters, coffee coolers and bounty Jump.
ers. IF the gentleman from Pennsylvan-
Bsyne) would read the National
Tribune, published in Washington by
men who received from $25, 200 to $45, 900
per month as fees from pensioners-blood
taken from soldiers whom they
pretended to love-he would find in every
column some abuse OF the president and
those who thought differently from them
as to the propriety of the measure. Such
newspapers as this, which professed to be
friends of soldiers were such friends as
the vultures were friends of their dead
because they fed and fattened on
them.
1t had been charged that he was not a
of the soldier. To hat he replied
that no man who had served with his
troops in the field for four years, who had
followed the starry flag in fifty or sixty
battles would forget them. 1t
was for that class ofsoldiers hat he stood
here to-day-to defend them against the
imputation cast upon them by the passage
Of a pauper pension bill. No man who
had experienced the exquisite delight OF
down the line that was wavering
and breaking in the presence of the enc
my, and heard the cheer three times
20 up-a cheer of confidence and
Joy that a leader had come-could ever
forget his comrades. Who hat had aver
seen those men rushing into battle,
t~houghtless ofthemselves and their homes,
ready to lay down their lives for their
country could aver forget them, or would
be willing that they should be classed as
paupers and placed on the roll with the
coffee coolers of the army? The men
who advocated this bill were not the
friends of the true soldier. They advo-
Gated this bill, many of them, why? Sim
ply because the men could vote for whom
they expected to buy by this bill.
MIR. Henderson, of Iowa-For one, |
pronounce hat false. Applause on the
Republican side and in the galleries.
Mr.. Bragg say that that is the sub
stratum upon which all this action is
based. lfthese men whom they call pau
pers we're to call upon them individually
for aid, they would say to them, You
good for nothing scoundrels, you are as
competent to work as we are" Laughter
and applause on the Republican side.
This bill, he said, would grant pensions to
men who had served from December,
1864, to June, 1865. Who were these
men? They were the scum of the earth.
They were the scum-aye, and dregs.
They staid in their homes until they were
bought-bought by men who specialized
in blood; paid from 800 to $500, with
the private assurance that they were
physically so defective that all they had
to do vas to 20 to the hospital and not
endanger their precious carcasses.
The gentlemen talked about soldiers
being in almshouses. The men who we're
found there were the men who had come
from them, and who, when they left the
army, had lapsed into their old condition.
No true, brave soldier need ever go to the
poorhouse. Men who went there were
natives there. They had not self-respect,
no character; they lay down and opened
their mouths for the teat to suck.
MIR. Steele, of Indiana, interiected a re-
mark.
Mr.. Bragg said that he knew that the
gentleman who had Just interrupted him,
if he dared vote his conviction, would vot,
as he Bragg did. He knew the gentle
men who had committed themselves day
after day in opposition to the principle o